Friday, January 11, 2013

IndyConnect's Marketing Campaign Is Totally Misleading

The propagandists at IndyConnect are having no problem getting the local new media in Central Indiana to shill for their grandiose mass transit plan. Watching their slick new videos promoting a regional income tax to pay for the plan, one would think you'll get it all if you just pay 0.3% more in local income taxes. The reality is that most of the mass transit proposals laid out in the slick new ads won't be built with the initial new taxes that will be imposed and the promised reduction in commute times are a mere fantasy. The additional light rail lines and many of the mass transit bus lines can only become a reality if taxpayers are taxed billions more beyond the initial $1.3 billion investment, which is just a fraction of the comprehensive mass transit system described in the videos. The plan's biggest pitfall is its failure to address the inevitable when fares prove inadequate to cover the operating costs of the system because ridership is simply too low to maintain the new system. Taxpayers will be required to pay even more taxes to support the system because most commuters will choose their automobile over the inconvenience and additional commute times occasioned by utilizing mass transit. Study after study shows that commuting by mass transit increases average commute times by 30 to 40%. People don't choose mass transit because it's faster, particularly in an area like Indianapolis where there simply is a lack of population density and traffic congestion during rush hour periods is not near as bad as it is in other major American cities. These are all inconvenient facts that you won't be told as the propaganda machine picks up to pick your wallets once again.

4 comments:

Jon said...

And I'm certain that the referendum presented to the public this fall will be every bit as forthcoming as the Wishard referendum .

Guest said...

There is a bus stop within a short walking distance throughout Marion County. I notice during the day the buses are mostly empty with the exception of early and evening work times, I would imagine. They cannot make this work and even abandoned the one route that was supposedly sucessful because it was subsidized and that money ran out. We have a flawed referendum system so we the taxpayer should be concerned. We miss Carl Moldthan who would have produced a study against this fantasy.

Jon said...

Footnote, did you notice that the funding for the pr campaign was paid for by the feds? So our own tax dollars are being used to seek more taxes from us!

Citizen Kane said...

Yeah, I remember meeting with Wishard and the PR / Marketing people took the lead (never had a meeting that included PR / Marketing people before or since. But I knew right then that they would screwed and that they would ram this down our throats.